Scenes From a Memory
by Slave of the Jester Race
Summary: In which a Sociopath gets his claws on a Pokemon and subsequently discovers the field of Competetive Battling.
1. Chapter 1

Written mainly for my own catharsis, carry on if you don't like it. Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

* * *

I never have been what you might call an upstanding citizen, that's the opposite end of the spectrum really. I just do what I can to get ahead, that is all there is to it. Sure I may act like a good boy, but that's all it is really; an act.

Morality means nothing to me.

The only thing I really have really cared about is knowledge, and that was even before I had heard of the old knowledge is power proverb. It was mostly to satiate my vast curiosity but as I got older, I realised that I could put my knowledge to good use to help me get ahead of the rest of the pack. I absorbed information like a sponge, and when I could no longer gain information from that source, or the information did not interest me, I simply discarded it.

I suppose that is why I never really put my parents on a pedestal like most children. My mother was unemployed and my father was a lorry driver. Not exactly the greatest pool of knowledge and even then the wisdom gleamed wasn't really all that luminous.

I was eight years old when the concept of pokemon battling was brought to my attention. Barry, one of my class mates who liked to consider himself my friend at the time, brought in an empty pokeball and proclaimed to the class, using the pokeball as his driving force, that he was going to be a master battler just like his father. By the end of the day, his pokeball was missing and I had acquired a Bidoof.

I never told anyone about the Bidoof. I had heard that it was better to injure a pokemon before trying to throw a pokeball at it. I saw one in the field on the way home and, me being the eight year old child I was, booted it like a soccer ball. I waited until the weekend before I ended up finally releasing it from the ball. Apparently it had died during that time, I later found out that pokeballs don't provide sustenance for the captured pokemon. I knew I was supposed to feel bad for the life that had been lost, but I simply just couldn't bring myself to care. It was a lesson well learned, but that didn't stop me from raging at the situation. The corpse was subsequently dumped in the lake.

I say it because I never even cared to check it's gender.

A week later after cooling off from my failure, I asked my mother if I could have a pokemon. She said not to worry and simply focus on my studies. When my father arrived home at the week, I used his guilt at not being there for me to get me a pokemon. He got me a Meowth. Sure mother yelled at me and I wasn't allowed to leave the house for a week (She was hardly going to ban her precious university bound child from reading and learning), but I got what I wanted didn't I?

* * *

"Are you serious?" Barry almost shouted at the professor in disbelief. "You're actually giving me a Pokemon!? This is so cool!" The esteemed Professor Rowan was getting more and more irritated by the second at the loud boy's antics, even to the point of having second thoughts about giving the boy a pokemon with such potential.

His assistant, Dawn, seemed to have no qualms about it as she held out the briefcase containing the three pokeballs. "You can only have one, so choose wisely." She said with a smile on her face. She seemed to be infatuated with the boy, Rowan thought to himself.

"Thank you so much professor!" The boy cried out as he snatched one up at random and pushed the button to release the pokemon. Rowan resisted the urge to berate the boy and settled for rolling his eyes.

"Now that you have your own pokemon, the chances of you recklessly endangering your life by rushing headlong into the world without thought for your own safety will have been greatly reduced." The professor told the boy who didn't seem to be listening as he was too focused on his new starter pokemon.

"So you picked Turtwig huh?" Dawn said, setting the briefcase down besides her as she knelt down to pat the newly released pokemon on the head. "These guys grow up to be pretty strong, you made a wise choice."

"Hardly." A new voice sounded out from behind them. Barry's eyes opened wide as he wheeled around to face his class mate.

"You take that back!" He shouted out at the boy in frustration. "Screw you John! Always doubting me. Just you wait, me and Turtwig are going to going to be the greatest! We're going to take the league by storm!"

Ignoring the outburst from the boy, Rowan regarded the newcomer in a curious light. "What makes you say that? Many trainers from Sinnoh started off with Turtwigs just like this one and have gone on to defeat all of the regions eight gyms and become legends in their own right."

"Torterra is relatively slow in comparison to most of the threats of the world. Major weakness to Ice. Can't inflict any status moves. Grass pokemon in general are sub par for coverage. The only things it really has going for it are Leech Seed and can put up Stealth Rocks although there are pokemon that outclass it in both of those aspects."

"Personally I would have went for Empoleon. It can also learn Stealth Rocks. It has the best defensive type in Steel which allows it to resist a lot of common types. It was access to Agility which allows it to out speed pretty much everything. Decent defences. A good Special attacker. It has access to Ice Beam which allows it to hit Dragons for Super Effective hits. It may have a glaring weakness to Fighting, but that's what switching is for."

"Why are you talking about the final evolutions?" Dawn asked in confusion. "Isn't it a bit too early to be talking about them when they are only in their first stage? You would have to train them for months before they finally get to stage, and even then you would have to be training every single day."

"I believe John here must be a strategist who thinks in the long term and not on what is in plain sight." Rowan said with a frown.

"I don't deny it. Although first stage pokemon do make for smaller targets."

The professor smiled despite himself. "Tell me young man, what would be you're ideal team of six?"

"Arceus, Darkrai, Dialga, Lugia, Palkia, and Ferrothorn." The boy said with a blank look on his face. He had obviously thought of this before to be able to list them off just like that.

"I haven't even heard of half of them." Dawn muttered to herself.

Barry just laughed. "You actually think the great legendary pokemon would submit to your command? That is just hilarious!" John simply ignored the comments as he continued to stare at the professor.

"Most of those Pokemon are simply conjecture, nothing more." Rowan said in a guarded voice as the smile slipped from his face. He did not like that line of thinking at all. Most sane people wouldn't even think of trying to capture the pokemon of myth and legend.

"You asked for my ideal team, you didn't say it had to be in the boundaries of what is practical and real."

"So John," Dawn spoke up after a moment of silence. "Do you have any Pokemon of your own?"

"Dawn." Rowan said with a slight edge to his voice. He saw what she was alluding to and he didn't like it. The girl turned away with a blush on her face. He only gave out the Turtwig because he knew his conscience wouldn't let him sleep knowing the reckless Barry would probably be attacked and hurt badly without a pokemon of his own. This other boy obviously had a head on his shoulders.

"No." He said simply.

"And it should stay that way!" Barry cried out as he glared he caught the eyes of John. "If he did, he would probably abuse it and force it to battle until it almost dies!"

Rowan watched rage flash across the strategist's eyes and the left side of his lip curl up in contempt before it transformed back to his blank stare in an instance. Dawn actually looked afronted at the harsh display.

"Now that's enough!" Rowan said in a stern voice as he stared down at the energetic boy. "Now while I do believe that there is no harm in a little rivalistic antagonism, there is no need for you to spout of slander."

"But i-" Barry was in the middle of speaking but Rowan cut him off.

"Don't make me think twice about gifting you that pokemon, boy."

Silence reigned once again before Dawn tried to break it by once again addressing the quiet boy. "So John is it? Other than legendaries, which are obviously out of the question, what would you put on your team?"

"Well, I don't really have an ideal team. Every pokemon would be subject to change based on the team I would be going up against, although there are about twenty or so Pokemon I would consider my go to's. Ferrothorn, Breloom, Blissey, Gliscor, Salamence, Garchomp, Alakazam, Forretress, Gengar, Gyarados, Magnezone, Empoleon, Tyranitar, Machamp, Conkeldurr, Scizor, Reuniclus, Metagross, Haxorus, Skarmory, and Hippowdon just off the top of my head."

"That's an impressive list." Rowan conceded before he motioned to his assistant to pick up the briefcase. "It has been wonderful chatting with you two, but I'm afraid we must be off now." He said as he turned and started walking away. "Hopefully I'll hear great things from you two boys. Come along Dawn."

"Ok professor." Dawn said as before turning to face Barry. "Come see us in Sandgem if you decide to take the league challenge. It's on the way to the first gym in Oreburough so it shouldn't be too out of the way." She said with a smile on her face. She went to turn away before she quickly turned to face John as if he was an after thought. "Oh you too if you ever get the chance. Ok, buh bye!" She said and then turned and ran to catch up with the professor.

There was silence as Barry watched the professor and assistant walk away before a large grin settled over his face as he looked down at his newly acquired Turtwig. "This is so awesome! We are going to take the league by storm!" He declared as he scooped up the turtle. "In your face John! I got a pokemon and you don't!" Barry turned to face John only to discover he was no longer there, he had simply disappeared. Barry simply shrugged before turning his full attention back to his pokemon.

"Come on little guy, let's go train!"


	2. Chapter 2

I called the Meowth my father got me Devin; I wasn't planning on giving it a name but my mother told me that it is a sign of friendship between the owner and the pokemon so I could hardly ignore her advice if I wanted to prove to her that I could be trusted to have my own.

As the years passed by, Devin kept turning up with trinkets; a pokeball here, a half empty potion bottle there. It was also notorius for turning up with spare change, all of which went straight to my wallet which was then subsequently blown on books about various battling strategies and how to make the most out of your pokemon. My interest in schooling took a noticeable plunge after, much to my mother's dismay. Although that's not to say I didn't fail, it always took me a relatively short time to learn new things.

I soon learned that Persians weren't all that great when it came to battling. Deciding to cut my losses in that area, I decided that it's inclination to pick up interesting items would be a better utility. I actually had it collecting items that didn't necessarily belong to no one.

One thing I valued about Devin was his loyalty. Always stuck by my side even though it never had been registered by a pokeball, and I wasn't planning on doing so any time soon. Why would I associate myself with the cat if it ever was seen while it was running an errand?

* * *

Dawn sighed as she picked up the pokeball containing her newly acquired Bidoof. Ever since losing that Chimchar, the professor had lost some of the trust he had in her and rather than firing her on the spot, he decided that she would have the tedious task of capturing several Bidoof and raise them up to the evolution level so that they could study the process in the lab. She had already raised a Bidoof of her own and that had taken two months for the single one.

She shuddered to think of how long it would take to evolve all five.

"Starly! Use Quick Attack." She heard the familiar loud voice of the boy who had received the Turtwig. It was faint, but sit was somewhat close by, she believed. Deciding she had nothing better to do at the moment, she proceeded to rush through the trees in the direction of the voice.

She soon came across the a large field in the clearing after escaping the thicket of trees. There were two people battling, one of whom was the boy who owned the voice she had heard. Barry was his name, she quickly remembered. He had a Starly and appeared to be Facing another boy she did not recognise who had a Starly of his own. The two birds were darting around the sky at high speed.

"Peck it!" Cried out the other boy. The bird that he commanded complied by speeding towards it's opposite.

"Dodge it Starly!"

"Battles at this level are really tedious, don't you agree?" Dawn tensed up in shock as she wheeled around to face the person who had sneaked up from behind her. She recognised him as the boy she had who she had met at the same time as Barry around a week ago. His name escaped her, although she knew it was something common.

"Not exactly," She said as she turned her attention back to the battle, although she was still wary of him. "Everyone needs to build up experience one way or another. If newbies were to go up against experienced battlers, they would be defeated within a heartbeat."

"I realise that, but it doesn't make it the battles any less monotonous."

"You know the Professor was right about you, only thinking about the future." Dawn said in a huff. "It's about letting your pokemon get experience at battling, that's part of the beauty of being a pokemon trainer."

"If you believe that, who am I to claim otherwise? To each their own I guess."

"Starly! Quick Attack!"

"Don't let it hit you Starly!"

"Why do they feel the need to tell their Pokemon to dodge?" The boy asked as the battle raged on.

"What?" Dawn asked in confusion as she turned her head to the left to face him. "Isn't it obvious?"

"A wild pokemon doesn't need to be told to dodge, it's simply instinctual." His eyes remained glued to the battle. "If it was something specific like dodge to the right I would understand because the trainer obviously has a strategy formed, but simply telling them something they should know to do is redundant."

"I suppose it's probably to show the pokemon that you aren't in over your head and that they should trust you. It probably also stems from the fact that at this level the pokemon probably just isn't used to battling and just needs a little instruction."

"Fair point, I suppose the beginning level isn't really my strong suit."

"Looks like you aren't as advanced at this as you thought you were, you're just a beginner. Would you like me to teach you how to catch a pokemon seeing as a newbie such as yourself would obviously have trouble in that aspect." Dawn said with an impish smile on her face. John either wasn't listening or simply didn't care.

There was silence between the two of them as one of the Starlys bit the other one's wing, sending them both spiralling to the ground.

"So John was it," She said as his name suddenly entered her mind, she smacked herself mentally for forgetting such an easy name. The boy simply nodded. "What brings you out here? I thought you said you didn't have any pokemon?"

"Put in an application with the Professor to receive a starter."

"The professor gave you a pokemon?" She asked in shock. She looked down at the boy's belt and sure enough there was a miniaturised pokeball. "Why didn't he just give you one back at the lake?"

"I believe he is the type of person who prefers to do things by the book. Barry probably would have gotten himself killed eventually so I suppose that's why he made the exception."

"Yeah, probably." Dawn muttered to herself. "You're actually pretty lucky to have gotten the Piplup you know?"

"I realised, the Professor told me that he only had it left, I guess I was just lucky. I'm glad the person before me picked Chimchar instead."

Dawn chuckled slightly at the misconception but didn't correct him otherwise.

"Use Peck!" Barry's boisterous voice sounded out.

"Are they afraid of repetition or something? Quick Attack is obviously the superior move out of the two damaging ones that they are capable of using at the moment."

"I don't really know actually, I was kind of like that when I first started out. I think it's mostly because they are beginners. They mostly think that it's better to vary their attacks because they think that it's better to be unpredictable. These two simply don't realise that it is practically impossible to avoid priority moves at this level because they are so fast. Also you are forgetting the fact that a crowd doesn't like repetitiveness."

"Repetitiveness means nothing when it's obviously the best plan attack."

"Alright Starly, it's weak. Let's finish this with a final Quick Attack!" The Starly in question from it's higher altitude shot down like a bullet and slammed into the other one, knocking it to the ground and out cold in the process.

"Yeah well, that's just how it is." Dawn said simply started walking towards the two boys who had finished their battle.

"Oh by the way, can you confirm something for me?" Dawn stopped walking and turned her head to face the boy. "I understand that you are in the possession of Porygon."

"What the hell is that?! You're supposed to give money to the winner, not a cabbage! Why are you even carrying one anyway?" Barry screamed.

Dawn's eyebrow raised as she regarded the question. "How exactly would you know that?"

"There have been rumours about some company in Unova developing an item that greatly raises the defence of pokemon that aren't in their final stage of evolution. Have you heard of it?"

Dawn tilted her head in confusion. "I believe you are talking about Battle Tech's Eviolite, but what does that have to do with my Porygon? Wouldn't it work well with any pokemon that you are raising to withstand more of a hit until you evolve it."

"I see. Never mind then." John shook his head before turning to face the forest. She swore she had seen the inexpressive boy's lip curl up. "That Porygon, I'm willing to pay for it." And with that, he disappeared in to the trees.


End file.
